Thousands of Iranian students, backed by the population, took to the streets in Tehran and other major cities on 9 July after the authorities had unleashed Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), special units of the Intelligence Ministry and plainclothes men from the Ansar Hezbollah thugs on a raid the night before on student’s dormitories in the Capital, beating savagely the students, throwing some of them from the windows, burning the dormitories and vandalising the place.

For the four days that followed, students took to the streets, carrying posters and slogans denouncing the regime and clashing with the LEF and the thugs.

As the protest movement was developing and becoming more threatening for the survival of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, in agreement with President Mohammad Khatami, who had been elected triumphantly two years before mostly thanks to the students vote, decided to crush the movement before it gets out of control and on sixth day, thousands of revolutionary guards, supported by the basij, the police, the Intelligence Ministry and the thugs attacked the demonstrators with such a violence that it took them less than five hours to disperse the protesters.

The campaign, ordered by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, is supervised by the former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and coordinated by Hojjatoleslam Ali Akbar Nateq Noori, a former Speaker of the Majles who now is in charge of the Leader’s Intelligence Organisation, the source said, speaking to Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity.

Besides the Chairman of the Expediency Council and the former Speaker, representatives from the Voice and Visage (Radio and Television), Revolutionary Guards, Council of the Guardians, the Judiciary, the Friday Preachers Association as well as leading conservative newspapers such as Keyhan and Resalat and pressure groups, all the un-elected but key organs under the direct control of the leader, forms the anti 9 July coordination committee, according to the source.

"You have to choose between a genuine democracy or continuing the present path of policy, one that would inevitably lead to the total collapse of the regime", 130 reformist MMs (Members of the Majles) told the leader of the Islamic Republic in a letter dated 21 May.

The missive was followed by an "Analytical Statement" published by the leaders of students from the nation’s 24 universities, warning Mr. Khameneh'i and other ruling officials to "revise" their line of conduct or the Iranians might call on "superior powers" to dislodge them, "as the Iraqi people did with Saddam Hoseyn".

The CG’s decision had placed the reformists in a difficult position, as several prominent figures close to the President had suggested a collective resignation of both the government and the reformist fraction that controls the Majles or revert to a referendum in case the Guardians rejects the bill, which they had approved.

"The United States is supporting ideas such as holding referendum in Iran, an idea also raised by some political camps in the country", Hojjatoleslam Nateq Noori said on Wednesday, adding, "the change to the present system is not needed but those favouring change should be put away from the system" the official news agency IRNA reported.

"Unfortunately there are some at the head of certain state organisations that launch ideas on the national system and Velayat-e Faqieh that are upheld by the US too", the former Speaker who was badly defeated in the 1997 presidential elections told female basiji (volunteers).

He was referring to some members of the Islamic Revolution’s Mojahedeen Organisation, the best organised and most influential group within the Second Khordad Coalition that supports the lamed and powerless Khatami.

Mr. Mahdavi Kermani, whi is the special Representative of the leader in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) condemned the move by the United States to launching a psychological war aimed at overthrowing Iran's Islamic system.

For its first manifestation, the Crackdown Committee organised sporadic demonstrations in Tehran, Qom and some other cities by the Hezbollah thugs against the lawmakers who had signed the 21 May letter, accusing them of "giving up" to the enemies’ threat and urging the Judiciary of taking "stern, exemplary measures" against the "culprits who had dared not to obey the beloved leader".

The pressure groups, including the basiji women, prevented reformists and dissidents, including two leading reformists MMs in Mr. Rajab’ali Mazroo’i and Mrs Fatemeh Rake’i, to address people.

In the central city of Esfahan, the Law Enforcement Forces shot dead Seyyed

Rahman Amini, a young student while distributing leaflets inviting people to join the 9 July demonstrations.

In statements and appeals, the two groups, but also many other inside and outside Iran, had invited the people to come out "massively" on 9 July, demonstrating their total solidarity with the grieved students.

"All these threatening statements, manifestations, jailing of students and dissidents are to show that the ruling conservatives have reactivated the pressure groups ahead of the 9 July upraising by students", commented Mr. Mas’ood Behnood, a veteran journalist who now lives in London.

In his view, both President Khatami and the Majles Speaker, Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karrobi, shares the view of the conservatives in stopping any mass demonstrations on this occasion.